Beach Grill closes its doors

After a 15-year run as one of Macomb County’s best known summer nightlife attractions, the Beach Grill and Aqua Bar in St. Clair Shores has closed its doors for good.

Owner Mark DiMaso said when the venue on Jefferson Avenue south of 10 Mile Road along the Nautical Mile ended its summer season in September, he decided it was time to sell the place and move on to other projects.

“I realized I need to start enjoying life instead of working seven days a week all year,” DiMaso said. “Even though we were closed several months out of the year, running that place was a full-time job for the past 15 years because you’re always re-hiring and re-training people.”

DiMaso purchased the former Brownie’s on the Lake building (which has since moved down the street) and invested $6.5 million to rebuild the resort facility in 1997.

Beach Grill quickly developed a following as a great restaurant and a cool nightclub to spend summer afternoons and nights enjoying a 5,000-square-foot waterfront deck, tiki bar, and the interior’s 700-square-foot dance floor.

“We knew we’d be the focal point for the Nautical Mile,” DiMaso said.

Over the past decade, the Nautical Mile’s presence has grown as a destination point with all of the restaurants and waterfront attractions. It was not unusual to see a long line of patrons waiting to get inside the dance club on weekend nights.

DiMaso said all of the owners of Rojo Mexican Bistro, Fishbone’s, Brownie’s, Waves and others don’t view each other as competitors, but more as colleagues, working together to draw people to the Lake St. Clair area.

Donna Flaherty, president of the Nautical Mile Merchants Association, said DiMaso was one of the strip’s leading advocates whose upbeat energy and attitude will be greatly missed at association board meetings.

“He was the first person I contacted when I became president of our association,” Flaherty recalled. “I was telling him how we need to promote the Nautical Mile and he said he’d help in any way he could. And he did just that for the past 15 years. I am happy for him, but he will leave a big void here.”

DiMaso sold Beach Grill to the company that operates Jefferson Beach Marina. Marina spokesman Danny Samson could not be reached for comment but DiMaso said he was told the company plans to eventually re-open as a restaurant under a different name.

For now he plans to relax a bit, but DiMaso said it’s possible he will end up running another restaurant somewhere. “I may or may not get back into the nightclub business, but I’m too hyper of a guy not to be involved in something,” he said.

The hard rock trio Left For Dead will celebrate its 10-year anniversary with a show Nov. 10 at Pub 1281 in Clinton Township.

Drummer Mark Cicchini, guitarist-vocalist Mike Lipski and bass player Keith Jones say they’re proud of sticking together and playing for a whole decade when venues that supported live music in the past, such as the Hayloft, TNT’s, Dawg House and others, have closed.

“Over the last 10 years we have outlived almost 100 percent of our peers and even outlived most of the clubs that used to support original local music,” Cicchini said in an email.

The band attributes its longevity to hard work, dedication to the music, and supportive listeners.

Left For Dead has compiled five CDs and is currently assembling material for a sixth, which is expected to be completed in 2013. For the Nov. 10 gig, expect to hear the threesome perform its best known material such as “Texas,” “Son of The Gun,” and cover tunes like The Monkees’ “(I’m

Not Your) Steppin’ Stone.” Oxal Pointe, Cadre and Rhiannon also perform that night. Admission is $5, doors open at 9 p.m. at Pub 1281, at 1281 Gratiot Ave., north of 16 Mile Road, Clinton Township.